Other Publications

Control and Sexuality by Ziba Mir-Hosseini and Vanja Hamzić examines zina laws in some Muslim contexts and communities in order to explore connections between the criminalisation of sexuality, gender-based violence and women’s rights activism. The Violence is Not Our Culture Campaign and the Women Living Under Muslim Laws network present this comparative study and feminist analysis of zina laws as a contribution to the broader objective of ending violence in the name of ‘culture’. Attached is the whole book, available for download for free. Please do consider making a donation to WLUML.

Analyzing Religious Fundamentalist Strategies and Feminist Responses by Cassandra Balchin. This publication is one in a series of products based on collaborative research under AWID's multi-year Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms Initiative.

This collection of case studies is a testament to the women and men around the world who have stood up to reject the imposition of norms and values in the name of religion as well as to expose and challenge the privileged position given to religion in public policies. In 2008 AWID launched a call for proposals to document the strategies of women's rights activists confronting religious fundamentalisms. The final 18 case studies presented here are drawn from a wide range of religious and geographical contexts, and cover various fields of activism.

In the new Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung publication, Religious Fundamentalisms and Their Gendered Impacts in Asia, Claudia Derichs and Andrea Fleschenberg (eds.), there is a chapter by WLUML board member, Zarizana Abdul Aziz: 'Malaysia – Trajectory towards Secularism or Islamism?' Abdul Aziz writes, "As the Malaysian legal system moves closer towards accommodating syariah, there has been an increase in inter-ethnic and inter-religious tensions.

The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women is pleased to announce the publication of their first Policy Briefing Series on culturally-justified violence against women (CVAW). Launched on March 3rd, 2010 at their panel discussion at the 54th UN Commission on the Status of Women, the Series is a valuable resource for those working on issues of CVAW.

In March of 2008, Women Living under Muslim Laws and Concordia University organized a symposium to discuss the impact of Muslim women's invovlement in sports, especially in the context of Iran. Some Muslim women athletes have used sport to inscribe resistant meanings that challenge social norms, while others have used it to express and reinforce these norms. The full report is attached.

Internet censorship, or content filtering, has become a major global problem. Whereas once it was assumed that states could not control Internet communications, according to research by the OpenNet Initiative (http://opennet.net) more than 25 countries now engage in Internet censorship practices.

There are different forms of public participation. In addition to demonstrations and rallies, there are other efficient tools to demand change, such as poster and postcard campaigns, calls for action campaigns, petitions and direct lobbying. This WLUML Tool for Activists focuses on just one form of public participation: the letter writing campaign or solidarity letter.

Although women in Bahrain have had access to education and have participated in elections for eighty years now, even holding positions in government, Ghada Jamsheer, President of the Women's Petition Committee in Bahrain, denounces the flagrant bias stemming from the assumption that this equates to women's full emancipation.